With Zimbabwe having been expelled from the preliminary competition by the Fifa Disciplinary Committee, Africa sees 53 of its 54 member associations involved in the preliminary draw on Saturday, 25 July 2015 in St. Petersburg, Russia.
The 26 lowest-ranked participating associations from the region will contest Round One. Those teams will be allocated to two pots of 13 teams based on the Fifa/Coca-Cola World Ranking of July 2015; the 13 highest ranked teams and the 13 lowest ranked teams. They will then be drawn against each other to play over two legs on a home and away basis between 5 and 13 October 2015.
Tanzania, Gambia, Liberia, Central African Republic, Chad, Mauritius, Seychelles, Comoros, Sao Tome and Principe, South Sudan, Eritrea, Somalia, Djibouti
The winners of the Second Round will move into the Third Round, where five groups of four teams will meet both home and away. The winner of each group will qualify for Russia 2018.
Current CAF rankings (top ten):
1. Algeria
2. Ivory Coast
3. Ghana
4. Tunisia
5. Senegal
6. Cameroon
7. Congo
8. Cape Verde
9. Egypt
10. Nigeria.